~ Department of English, Mount Saint Vincent University

Upcoming Tolkien conferences 2012-13

Having missed the Mythopoeic Society’s conference that just wrapped up in California last week – one of these days I’ll get there! – and thinking about the Return of the Ring conference that will begin in Loughborough UK in a few days – where I had been hoping to go but had to cancel in the end – I started thinking about other Tolkien-related conferences that I can and cannot attend in the coming year. Here is a list of upcoming Tolkien conferences – the ones I know of, at least. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, and with Peter Jackson’s first installment of The Hobbit films coming out in December, there is particular interest in that text this year.

Do you know of any other conferences relating to Tolkien studies that I’ve missed? Please let me know!

Hobbit Symposium
The Woode-walkers Medieval Studies Group, the English Dept., and Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, US
December 1, 2012Call for papers: September 22, 2012
Plenary address: Douglas A. Andersonhttp://woodewalkers.wordpress.com/hobbit-symposium/

Celebrating The Hobbit: A Conference on the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, Indiana, US
March 1-3, 2013Call for papers: September 1, 2012
Plenary speakers: Verlyn Flieger, Douglas A. Anderson, John D. Rateliff. Featuring a 25th anniversary performance of Symphony #1: The Lord of the Rings, composed and conducted by Johan de Meij.http://conference.valpo.edu/tolkien/

10th Annual Tolkien at UVM ConferenceUniversity of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont, USKeynote speaker: John D. Rateliff
The conference usually takes place in early April (2013).
The call for papers usually has a January deadline.
Contact: Chris Vacarro : cvaccaro [at] uvm [dot] edu

Tolkien at KalamazooInternational Congress on Medieval Studies
University of Western Michigan
Kalamazoo, Michigan, US
May 9-12, 2013Call for papers: September 15, 2012http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

Follow the Congress links for contact information and instructions on how to submit proposals. Sessions that specifically mention Tolkien are the following:Tolkien at Kalamazoo:I.In Honor of Verlyn Flieger: The State of Tolkien Scholarship (ARoundtable Discussion); II. Art and Music of TheHobbit; III. Tolkien as Medieval Scholar; IV. Women in Tolkien’s Professional Life; V. In Honor of Jane Chance: Tolkien and Alterity; VI. Tolkien Unbound (A Performance)

Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages (SSHMA)Queer Tolkien [cosponsored with Tolkien at Kalamazoo]

I’m wondering if there will be any Tolkien sessions at the MLA 2013 convention or at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in 2013? If you know of any Tolkien studies panels there or elsewhere, let us know!

Gerry, The conference was in danger of being cancelled — and this year was its tenth anniversary! — but a few people got together and made it happen (on a smaller scale) just the same. Perhaps you were there? I wasn’t able to attend, but I’m hoping that the university will find some way to support it.